To be Fair

Chef Ah Wan

Chef Ah Wan is from Burmese and Chinese Heritage and was born in Bangkok. Though she did not have an illuminous academic background, she has great talent in language, politics and is a successful self-made woman. In her growing up years, she has worked in almost every occupation, from door-to-door cooking pot saleswoman, grocery storekeeper and all sorts.

Literally growing up on the street, Ah Wan is famous for her fiesty and spunky character. No one in Sisa Asoke dares to bully her for she would not hold back in scolding you. But she is a lady with a big heart. The Sisa children love her. She is strict with her student helpers but she has also a little bag of nick-nack and key chains and colourful whistles that she would give away as prizes if the kids perform well.

During her teenage year, she was not proud of parents' marriage and made a vow that she would marry no Thai natives. She said Thai natives beat their wives. However her grandma's constant nagging that a women's rightful place was in the kitchen put her in a dilemma. Then she had an idea, may be a "fah-rang" (caucasian ) would make a good husband. But where to find them? She concocted a plan.....

A foreign language school might be a good place to find a decent white guy. So off she went to a school to make an enquiry. It turned out that there is no standard rate for English course. Worst of all, she could only afford English class taught by English-speaking Thai teachers, whom she claimed spoke with a weird accent. Filipino teachers charged slightly higher fee and the Fahrang teachers usually charged a bomb. The hope of marrying a decent Fahrang man went down the drain.

However since she came all the way to the school, she was not going to give up that easily. She was always interested in learning Mandarin. She signed up in for 2 year chinese class. Funny enough she ended up meeting her future husband from the same class. She was the naughtiest student and her husband was the best student. They have a son who is doing very well in school and aspire to study medicine this year if everything works out. Her son lives and studies in Bangkok Asoke while her husband lives in another Asoke in Northen Thailand.

Every day after the morning breakfast run, she would retire to her own hut, have a nap in her hammock and take a chill pill with a small cup of Nescafe. Keeping a private stash of 3 in 1 coffee, she told me was not a model way of Asoke living which preaches that one on should not indulge in pleasure and material needs. But she grinned, "Shhhh.... don't tell anyone" and winked.

One day she decided to invite me and a few of her close friends for dinner in her house. Bak Mee is on the menu. We drove to the market nearby to buy dumpling wraps and yellow noodles that the Thai call simply as "mee". The white noodles and mee-hoon they call "keow teow".

I spotted a lady with a very fashionable hair-curlers do

Here is Chef Ah Wan's famous bak mee with fried vegetarian wanton, steamed vegetarian wanton, bean sprouts, mushroom, carrots and spring onions. The soup base was made from raddish and chunks of big onions. I told a friend that if Anthony Bourdain ever tasted this noodles, he would hallucinate. Even looking at it now, I am drooling...

posted by Vegie @ 10:26 AM